Geographic Localities For Marine Gastropod Species

(mostly Columbarium, Conidae, Cypraeidae and Terebridae)

from locality data in the shell collection of

Ronnie Watt (South Africa) and other sources.*

Copyright Ronnie Watt 2003

Updated 06.12.2003

Introduction

This list of Geographic Localities is an exercise in standardising place names. It was born from my frustration with wrong locality data (incomplete data, misspelled place names, wrong regional data, the use of antiquated names, etc.) that came with specimen shells that I acquired for my collection.

It is not a definitive list of all the localities from where shells are collected but reflect lists of localities gleaned from internet websites of dealers and researchers and specimen shells in my own collection. Nor is it a 100% accurate list because I am not completely familiar with all localities.

The easiest way to pinpoint a locality on this list is to use your software search function. A data entry might appear as only a country name, or as a country with province/region, or as a country with province/region/city, etc. I do not expect of anyone to use the exact and detailed locality listings in this database.

It is the intention to expand the data on the list to include the Conidae, Cypraeidae and Terebridae species found at specific localities.

You are invited to add localities to this list and make corrections to the locality data. You are also invited to participate in listing those species associated with specific localities. Please e-mail your comments to me and I will update the data.

E-mail to: clumber@telkomsa.net

This list is dedicated to the memory of Laurie Smith, the South African amateur malocologist who had a passion for locality “addresses” and who was my first mentor in shell collecting. Laurie passed away in 2003.

I also wish to honour some other shell dealers who helped me access many special specimen shells in my collection: Dr. Felix Lorenz (Germany); Philippe Quiquandon (France); Philippe Poppe (Philippine Islands); José and Marcus Coltro (Brazil); Gabriella Raybaudi Massilia (Italy); George Sangiouloglou (Greece); Gonçalo Rosa and Paulo Granja (Portugal); Simon Aiken (Britain); Werner Massier (Namibia), Hugh Morrison and Simone Pfuetzner (Australia) and Arie Jooste, Bruno de Bruin, Victor Millard, Alwyn Marais, Sean Swarts, Val van der Walt and Willie Immelman (South Africa). There are numerous other collectors, divers and dealers who provided specimen shells. My secretary, Joleen van Vuuren, assisted in verifying locality data and my partner, Allan Payne, showed extreme patience when I spent all my free time to research and log data.

The most special mention is of Maria Demertzis of Aegean Shells (Greece) who shares and supports my enthusiasm for this project and is the website host for the list.

Ronnie Watt

Johannesburg, South Africa

2003

clumber@telkomsa.net

Legends

Main entry: Country name and brief description of geographical location.

Sub-entry: A specific, major locality within a country/region with a brief description of geographical location.

Name equivalent: The more popular correct name followed by a local or former name.

Locality: In order of country, principal locality, secondary locality, tertiary locality, etc.

Items highlighted in blue. Locality data that can not be verified from my own sources.

Geographic Localities

  A, AU, B, C, D-E, F, G, H, I, J, K-L, M, N, Ne,  O, Pa, Ph,  R, Sa, So, T, U, V-W-Y

Reference and Additional Sources